


The Heart of Fear

by Rose_of_Pollux



Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 08:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10849902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_of_Pollux/pseuds/Rose_of_Pollux
Summary: It's Napoleon's turn to be a victim of THRUSH's fear gas, and Illya has to find a way to get through to him.





	The Heart of Fear

In retrospect, they should have suspected that the THRUSH facility that they were raiding, despite being abandoned, would have still had activated traps. Such an oversight could have led to far worse consequences than what they were facing now—although, at the moment, as he was desperately searching for Napoleon, who had been hit with a dose of THRUSH’s ever-nasty fear gas, Illya wasn’t so sure this wasn’t worse than he thought. Napoleon was running scared, under the influence of the gas—there was every chance in the world that his panic would send him straight into a more lethal trap.

“Napoleon!” Illya called. “ _Napoleon_!”

He stopped for a moment, trying to figure out what Napoleon would do. Illya was no stranger to fear gas, having had a nasty experience with it himself on a previous mission. He had lashed out at Napoleon at the time, unable to recognize him, but Napoleon gently persisted until he had managed to get through to him.

With the situations now reversed, it wasn’t as simple as Illya being able to do the same thing; he and Napoleon were very different, and Napoleon’s reaction to the drug had been different, as well—the drug had left Illya immobile with fear, while for Napoleon, it had set off his flight response.

Illya was checking each corridor as he attempted to contact Napoleon on his communicator, but Napoleon had tossed that aside—Illya found it lying in the stairwell in the back of the building.

As Illya glanced upward at the stairwell, and then at the exit door behind him. Would Napoleon have headed upstairs? No… the very thought would have given his drugged state vertigo.

Illya opened the exit door, seeing Napoleon tear across an empty dirt field.

 _An empty field behind a THRUSH facility? This doesn’t seem…_ Illya’s thoughts came to a screeching halt as patches of the field showed that the dirt had been recently disturbed, and the blood drained from his face as he stopped in his tracks. “ _Bozhe moy_! Mines! Napoleon, stop! NAPOLEON!”

Napoleon was within earshot and certainly heard him, but didn’t stop, continuing to run through the minefield. The influence of the fear gas was too strong, and Illya quickly realized that he would have to fight the drug’s influence by giving Napoleon something even more frightening to consider—that he was in a minefield.

Taking his exploding money clip, Illya threw it on one of the mounds, and then hit the dirt as the mine and clip exploded. He had misjudged the strength of the mine, however, and the impact of the explosion had left Illya stunned on the ground, with a nasty bump on his head from where he had fallen.

Mercifully, Napoleon finally stopped running and turned back to see what had just happened, staring first at the crater that the mine had left, and then at the fallen blond. Pieces of his true self began to come back together, and soon, any worries about the minefield were replaced by those worries brought about by the slight of the immobile blond that he was just now recognizing as his partner. Slowly, watching out for the mines, Napoleon made his way back to Illya, who was still out of it.

“Illya…?”

Through the haze he was in, Illya heard his partner’s voice—though it was Napoleon’s voice, it sounded nothing like confident, brave partner he was used to. The voice he heard sounded lost and… crying? …Napoleon hardly ever cried… It must be the drug…

“Illya… Please, don’t…”

Illya could feel his partner gently lifting him in his arms, cradling him against his chest, which was shaking with sobs, and Illya quickly realized that his plan to give Napoleon something more frightening to consider had worked a bit _too_ well—the fear caused by the drug and fear of the minefield itself had been dwarfed by Napoleon’s fear of losing his partner.

Illya now forced his eyes to open, trying to end his partner’s misery; his success was limited, and he only groaned in pain, but that was enough for Napoleon to realize he was alive, and Napoleon just hugged him close, tears still falling from his eyes as he sobbed in relief.

They stayed there until the fear gas had worn off and Illya was able to move again; once that was over with, and Illya had promised that no one would know about Napoleon’s reaction to the gas, they called for backup and for Medical to make sure that they were both alright—the story given that they had tried to chase some suspicious individual through the minefield.

They both recovered from the ordeal, and Napoleon was grateful that he had Illya as his partner; if someone had to see him at his worst, then there was no one else he’d rather have.


End file.
